Interesting/unusual climbing gear

[Alpinfox]

 

 

I just came across this listing on ebay for an unusual piece of rock climbing pro that I have never seen before and though that some of you gear whores and historians might be interested in seeing/discussing it.

 

BTW, this is NOT my listing, and I'm not trying to promote the listing, just discuss the gear, so I'm going to post a link to an ebay auction and break the rules. Here I go:

 

LINK

 

 

 

 

It's called a Colorado Mountain Industries (CMI) "Monocam". I have no idea of the age of it. Any of ya'll seen or used these things?

[JosephH]

Yes, these (Kirk's Kams) are what we used to affectionately call the CMI "Swivel of Death". They and SMC Camlocks were a couple of the best-built 'misses' of the pre-cam climbing era. Both were miserably bad as pro, despite the fact that some people even today will stand up and defend the Camlocks. But they both sucked, these particularly badly. I have nothing but respect for Kirk and CMI - most of whose products over 30+ year have been superb, but these babies were a mistake.

[Alpinfox]

 

 

Thanks Joseph. I was specifically hoping that you would post.

 

 

So I assume these had a tendency to tip over and fall out sideways? Just a guess from looking at them. Did you ever personally use them?

 

 

A google search reveals THIS ARTICLE which I think has been posted here before, but is worth posting again.

[JosephH]

Yes, they'd swivel and drop out of almost any and every placement no matter how you used them. I did own two of them and they, like the Camlocks, didn't last a day's use before I sent them to the box of bad ideas.

[Ghoulwe]

Those pictured are as was mentioned, the original Kirk's Cams. CMI later fitted them with a spring and re-released them as RockJox. They didn't work much better than the originals. Gotta hand it to Ron Kirk though - he has been a creative guy over the years!

 

Eric